Piano and guitar are usually considered alternative instruments. However, some encounters between pianists and guitarists have remained in history (Bill Evans and Jim Hall, Brad Mehldau and Pat Metheny). Such encounters produced exciting results. This all-female piano-guitar duo is performed by brilliant musicians Francesca Tandoi and Eleonora Strino, who are the protagonists of the new Italian and European jazz scene. Tandoi is a talented musician from Rome, a big fan of Oscar Peterson and the greatest virtuoso swinging piano players. She started her career studying classical music and then discovered her vocation for jazz. She moved to the Netherlands in 2009, where she studied at prestigious academic institutions such as the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and achieved her first success. Her artistic path belongs to the glorious tradition of pianists-vocalists. Eleonora Strino has been acclaimed as a breath of novelty in a setting that had been waiting for a guitarist like her: she is inspired, musically cultured and technically prepared. She studied guitar as a teenager. After listening to Jim Hall on his famous record in duo with Bill Evans, she knew she wanted to become a jazz guitarist. Her career has been swift.
The US Magazine Jazz Guitar Today, a Bible of the instrument, featured her on the cover of its February 2020 issue. Her educational book “Bebop Scales for Jazz Guitar” was released worldwide in March 2023. Her first album as a bandleader, “I Got Strings”, was released in May 2023. It was recorded live in Berlin alongside Greg Cohen on double bass and Joey Baron on drums.
